This invention relates generally to vehicle parking aids used to indicate proper docking of a vehicle within an enclosure and more specifically, to positioning indicator means which may be lowered by opening motion of a garage door.
Methods of preventing overshoot when parking a car in a garage by means of a suspended ball-type indicator are well known. J. A. Ross, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,854,942, shows a ball-like warning device, cord suspended from the ceiling and positioned to contact the vehicle windshield when the car is properly positioned. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,981, M. P. Sparks provides a means of better estimating the overshoot distance by comparing the motion of a ball indicator impinging the hood of a car with that of a second vertically fixed plumb-bob line. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,817,203 and 3,874,322, W. A. Brauer teaches methods of connecting the suspended ball to the movement of a sliding garage door. He thus solves the problem of interference of the suspended ball with use of the garage area when the car is not parked in the area. By lowering the door, the ball is raised up out of the way. Not solved, however, is the problem of interference of the suspended ball with other garage uses when the overhead garage door must remain open. Also, those fixed systems without an overhead door lifting arrangement are unable to partake of the Brauer improvements. My invention solves these problems by providing additional means of raising or placing the docking indicator in a remote position independent of garage door movement.